The new site, which can be accessed through H&K Equipment’s existing URL, hkequipment.com, was quietly rolled out over the previous weekend in advance of the official launch on Monday morning. The changes to the website, the company said, were driven by an ongoing period of rapid growth.
“The old version of the website was badly in need of an update and did not do a good job of reflecting our capabilities,” Christian McKinney, marketing manager for H&K Equipment, said. “This is a cleaner, simpler design that brings our showroom inventory of used equipment and all of our product lines under one roof.”
“This website is long overdue,” added H&K Equipment General Manager Patrick Koch. “This was really a case of us growing faster than our web presence, and we’re excited to get the two aligned and to be more accessible online.”
The previous website, McKinney noted, had been partially built on a platform that allowed members of the sales team to quickly create and share equipment listings for sale and rent.
“When the last website was built, H&K Equipment was way ahead of the curve with its online showroom,” McKinney said. “We were doing things with our sales and rental listings, like sharing with other users and marketplaces, that are considered standard now that nobody was doing back then. What we had worked great, but after nearly 15 years we knew we had to move forward.”
The new website features an online showroom similar to what H&K Equipment had been using, but now its equipment inventory of several hundred trucks and machines is managed in-house through a primary dashboard on H&K Equipment’s own domain. In addition to providing technical and purchasing information on each unit, the showroom feeds into several online marketplaces in which H&K Equipment participates.
Users can search for equipment in the showroom via a concierge-style filtering system that breaks down the company’s inventory by class and other commonly used criteria. Listings are pegged to machines stocked across the company’s corporate network. Customers can also use the site to request quotes for service, schedule safety training, and to schedule equipment repairs and maintenance.
“The showroom was really back to basics for us,” McKinney said. “We have a lot of equipment to offer, so making a large range of machines searchable and accessible was the biggest challenge we faced. The new showroom is set up to get you the information you need quickly so you can make an informed choice before you even contact us. The idea of better informing the customer drove much of the design.”
“We represent a few dozen brands and have well over 1,500 machines in our sales and rental fleet,” Koch said. “The new website plants our flag online and gives our customers another way that they can come to us and quickly get the equipment they need.”
About H&K Equipment
H&K Equipment provides specialized material handling, industrial floor cleaning, and warehouse equipment solutions to customers throughout Pittsburgh and the tri-state area. Founded in 1983 by Alan Heidenrich and George Koch, H&K Equipment has grown from a three-person office into a regional leader in lift trucks, container handlers, railcar movers, personnel carriers, utility vehicles, yard trucks, and industrial floor cleaning machines.
Today, H&K Equipment forms the foundation of the H&K Equipment Group, a team of seven companies working together from 11 locations that cover over 13 states with over 340 employees. The company’s sales, service, parts, and rental network includes the entire Mid-Atlantic and nearly all of New England, while its international reach now extends to six continents.